Israeli jets attack Syrian research centre: Syrian army

The Syrian army says Israeli jets have attacked a military research centre near Damascus, killing two people.

“Israeli fighter jets violated our airspace at dawn today and carried out a direct strike on a scientific research centre in charge of raising our level of resistance and self-defence,” the army’s general command said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.

The strike came “after terrorist groups made several failed attempts in the past months to take control of the site” at Jamraya, the statement added, referring to rebel groups fighting the regime of president Bashar al-Assad.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing unnamed US officials, said the attack was aimed at a convoy carrying “‘game-changing’ strategic weapons to a Shiite militant group.

Israel has expressed concern that Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group, an ally of the Damascus regime, or other militant organisations.